Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

I have a chat with Anthony Pratkanis, "Master of the Noosphere," about the topic of his upcoming CSICon presentation on fraud. I hope he wasn't trying to pull a fast one on me.

Council for Secular Humanism rebuts a misleading statement from a religious advocacy group that falsely claims that religious groups' ability to provide emergency aid in times of disaster are at risk in Florida.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Did you watch any of the GOP convention last night? I sure did. I have thoughts about it, of course, but one thing relevant to this blog is how little I heard from the theocratic wing of the party. Very little, at least from the main speakers, about God or Jesus or what have you. Indeed, I only heard Mormonism mentioned once, by Ann Romney about her courtship with Mitt. Even Santorum was light on the fire and brimstone (but, shall we say, heavy-handed). Mike Huckabee comes on tonight, so, we may see some Bibles thumped yet.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Cardinal Dolan will be delivering the concluding benediction at next week's Republican National Convention (a convention I fully intend to be live-tweeting with glee and horror). This prompts Sarah Posner to say, "the [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] has unequivocally attached itself at the hip to the Republican Party." (Or, as Balloon Juice's John Cole puts it, "The Separation of Church and State. Oh, F*** It.")

The Atlantic profiles Dr. Harvey Karp, the media-star pediatrician (whose videos and books my wife and I have been learning from) -- why do I link it here? Dig it, and sigh heavily:

Readers’ early complaints about The Happiest Toddler . . . concerned its purported assault on creationism. “His references to monkeys/­apes and the human race [are] not for this Christian family,” wrote one BarnesandNoble.com reviewer. Karp caved. The “charming chimp-child” and “knee-high Neander­thal” have been purged from later editions of the book, as have all references to Homo habilis, the “missing link,” and, in short, the entire Karpian ontological toddler schema.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

James Croft gives what I think is a refreshing review of what the heck it is we mean by "humanism," and being reminded, I like it very much indeed.

At Friendly Atheist, I review the candidates' paeans to faithiness in Cathedral Age, which I compare to the 2008 ring-kissing of Rick Warren by Obama and McCain.

Coincidentally! Obama and Romney this time around have declined to take part in a Rick Warren ego-inflation event, and Warren is pretending that he was the one who called it off because he's so disappointed with the tone of the campaign. Oh, Rick. Rick, Rick, Rick.

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Cory Doctorow at BoingBoingpicks up the video of Annie Laurie Gaylor's presentation of the history of women in atheism at CFI's Women in Secularism conference. Says Doctorow:

It's a great tour through the history -- the often secret history -- of women who fought and gave all, risking persecution for speaking out against religion and for women's rights to control their destinies.

Pakistani 11-year-old Rifta Masih could face the death penalty for allegedly violating blasphemy laws. US State Department is "disturbed."

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

There is a lot of good stuff from over the weekend, so let's get right to it.

So you may have heard over the weekend that Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Missouri, declared that women have a "biological mechanism" that can prevent pregnancy in the case of "legitimate rape." I know, it's one of the worst things I've ever heard too.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

As you may have noticed, the Alexander Aan petition did not gather sufficient signatures, despite our efforts. We'll have more to say about it later (Michael De Dora addresses it well the WaPo piece), and believe me, we are not by any means through in our efforts to help Alexander and those in similar situations, so stay tuned. In the mean time, Russell Blackford echoes my own disappointment.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Yesterday CFI chief Ron Lindsay went on HuffPost Live for a panel discussion on religion in schools, along with Annie Laurie Gaylor, Frank Schaeffer, and Rahiel Tesfamariam. It was remarkably substantive with an informed moderator. Check it out.

Skepchick was running out of actual important people within the movement to do their "Speaking Out Against Hate Directed at Women" series, so they asked me to do one.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

American Atheists puts out new presidential-election-themed billboards featuring underwear and toast. CFI chief Ron Lindsay takes issue with the message they may be sending, focusing on the religions of the major party presidential candidates.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.

Oh, hey guys!

I'm back from my two-week hiatus as we welcomes my new daughter into the world, Phoebe Helen Fidalgo, born July 27. Baby and mommy are doing fantastically, and daddy continues to do battle with the two-year-old boy Toby who, I should say, is really jazzed about his new baby sister (or, as he calls her, "my baby").